imagine
by poisonrationalitie
Summary: Harry gets home a week late. He hopes the Auror department will lay off in future. Ginny can't let things stew.


**A/N For the Bi-Monthly Pairing the Character Challenge, Week #1, Harry Potter - paired with Ginny Weasley**

**Wordcount: 999**

"I'm glad you're home," Ginny said. "They've got timing, haven't they?"

"Oh, yeah, great timing." Harry shrugged off his coat. "Not twenty minutes into living here and they're asking me to go on a stake-out."

"Not twenty minutes into our _relationship_ and you went on a stake-out," Ginny said, shutting the wooden door of their new home. Harry hung his coat from the hooks along the walls, and began to unlace his shoes. "It's normal for us, isn't it?"

"I don't want it to be." One shoe off. Ginny locked the door. "Not twenty minutes into our kid's life and they'll be flooing me." His other shoe hit the ground with a _thud. _He turned, looking up at her. Even now, there was a _swoop _in her stomach. His eyes were wide, and she realised, making a small sound. "I didn't -"

"With our luck," she said, tucking her thumbs into the waistband of her pyjama pants. Her heart was sitting somewhere altogether too close to her lips. "Mum dropped round some pie, I'll heat it up, if you like." She headed for the kitchen.

"Erm, yeah. Thanks."

Boxes were still stacked on the countertops, with new pots and pans and cauldrons and timers and a _thermy-eater _that checked temperatures. The pie was in a rare clear space, wrapped carefully, and kept from going too cold with the help of her mother's charms. _Our kid. _She began to lift the wrap.

"Do you mind if I go in for a shower?"

"No worries," Ginny said, glancing over her shoulder. "There should be a clean towel on the counter, I haven't put up the racks yet."

"Yeah, okay. Thanks, Gin." She returned to their dinner, pulling off the last of the wrap. It was hot in one spot, and she swore as it burned her fingertip. _Our kid. _So he'd thought about it. Even vaguely. At one point, he'd imagined having a child with her - a future, with her. Somehow it made the burn hurt less. Of course, she'd thought about it before, too - a kid or four coming on the heels of a World Cup win for England, with her as their star chaser. She rubbed at a new knot in her neck. It asked her, _does he mean it? _

She took the pie and put it into the oven, turning a knob to indicate the amount of heating charms she needed for it. Once satisfied, she gave her hands a scrub-over in the sink.

"Shit!" It was faint, but it was Harry. She swung the tap off immediately, sprinting to the lobby and up the stairs. It was the biggest house she'd ever been inside, and it was nearly as confusing as Hogwarts, except the stairs didn't change and the smattering of pictures she'd hung already just smiled and waved, instead of yelling at you or lecturing. The knot in her neck pulsed with each step.

The door to their bedroom was ajar, and she shouldered past it. Boxes and trunks were still stacked, transforming the room into a wobbling maze of clothes and knick-knacks and pieces of an unassembled wardrobe. No steam chugged from under the door, as she was used to witnessing when Harry stayed over at the Burrow. "Harry?" she called.

"The water ran cold!" he yelped.

"What? I didn't even use the hot!" Ginny knocked on the door, before remembering that it was _Harry _in there, not some brother where she risked being permanently scarred for life. She slid the door across, and saw Harry standing in the corner of the shower, madly twisting the taps with one hand and hugging himself with the other. _There goes any talk of kids, _she thought. _His balls are gonna be frozen off._

"Fuck me," he said.

"Yeah, I was hoping to." She scrunched up her nose, and plunged her hand into the shower. "Shit!" It felt like getting brain freeze.

"I can turn a tap off," he said, pushing her fingers away. She wrapped her index around his.

"You've been gone for nearly a week," she said. "You need to chill out." Her sleeve was getting soaked. At least the water wasn't running up her sleeve.

"Actually, I'm a bit too chilled." Their hands wrestled, but one way or another, the shower was turned off. Ginny was left half-wet, with Harry facing her, grimacing. "I think it was nicer camping." Ginny raised her eyebrows. Harry stepped out of the shower, fiddling with strands of his wet hair. It was kind of hot. Well, of course it was kind of hot, because she had her boyfriend standing arse-naked, playing with hair that every teenage witch in Britain had hoped to, once. But she was the only witch in Britain who had to bring up the slip earlier. _Our kid._

"Don't get too comfortable camping," she said, squeezing her sleeve. A few pathetic drops of water fell to the ground. Fuck, how was she going to do this? She couldn't have things be weird on their first night at home together. _Here it goes. _"Or else they'll floo you at the wedding, too." Her heart was in her throat. He looked over his shoulder at her - _Godric, _that feeling in her stomach was never going to go away, was it?

"The wedding?" he asked. Beat. Two. _Fuck._ "Did I miss the proposal too?" Her shoulders slacked.

"Not that I know of," she said. The knot in her neck was gone completely. He was smiling, from ear-to-ear, actually, honestly. Who couldn't smile back at him? She was grinning too. "You don't need to get dressed, if you don't want." He laughed.

"Good, because I'm not sure where the trunk with my pants in it is," Harry said. "And I s'pose there's no big brothers to give me glares here."

"We can even leave the door open," she said, taking another step. He closed the gap, putting his hands on her hips, holding her. "And nobody will walk in. Imagine."

"Imagine."


End file.
